292 Dr A. Thomson on the Moa Caves of New Zealand, 



Mediterranean, Dr John Davy * was only able to find 

 a trace of animal matter. M. Marcel de Serres and M. 

 Ballard, chemists in Montpellier, procured some human 

 bones from a Gaulish sarcophagus, supposed to have been 

 buried some fourteen or fifteen centuries at least, and they 

 had lost three-fourths • of their original animal matter, f 

 Several skeletons of men were found in the West Indies, 

 incrusted with a calcareous cement ; but they only retained 

 a small portion of their animal matter; J whereas a skull 

 three thousand years old was taken from a tomb in ancient 

 Thebes, and contained about half of its animal matter. § In 

 1845, the fossil remains of a gigantic Mastodon were ex- 

 humed in the town of Newburgh, New York, and twenty- 

 seven per cent, of animal matter was obtained from some of 

 the bones || (tusks and teeth), while skulls found by Mr 

 Stephens in Yucatan were almost entirely destitute of ani- 

 mal matter.^ 



These examples tend to shew what length of time bones, 

 under favourable circumstances, will retain their animal 

 matter, and that no conclusion can be drawn as to the pro- 

 bable age of the Moa's bones in the cave of the Moa, from 

 the circumstance of some of them still retaining only one- 

 seventh, and others nearly the whole of their animal matter. 



General Remarks. — Is it probable that New Zealand was 

 once connected with Australia 1 This is not at all likely, 

 seeing there is so little resemblance between the flora and 

 fauna of the countries, and neither in the ossiferous caves or 

 tertiary deposits of the continent of Australia have Moas' 

 bones been found. 



Is it probable that New Zealand was once connected with 

 America ? This, Professor Owen thinks, may have been the 

 case at a remote geological period ; and he is inclined to re- 

 gard New Zealand as one end of a mighty wave of the un- 



* Physiological and Anatomical Researches ; 1839. 



f Lyell's Principles of Geology. J Ibid. 



§ Dr John Davy. || Lyell's Principles of Geology 



% Incidents of Travel. 



